danemodsandy
Well-known member
Country/City Homes
What's being depicted in The Women was a lifestyle that was fairly common for wealthy people at the time - a co-op apartment on Park Avenue in the city, and a place in Connecticut for weekends and summers.
Excellent train service in those days made it easy to live this way, and Connecticut real estate wasn't as stratospherically priced as it is now. Fairfield, CT, which is not affordable for most mere mortals today, was then a place where a lot of bankers, stockbrokers and wealthy theater people had second homes.
The whole lifestyle collapsed in the 1960s, when train service deteriorated drastically, and real estate got incredibly expensive. It did not help that the servants upon whom the wealthy depended to run such lavish establishments also became unaffordable, as well as extremely scarce - beginning after the war, most Americans wanted a "real" job, not one in domestic service. The wealthy still flocked to places like Fairfield, but many now had to choose between a city or country life. Today, only a very few people can afford this city/country way of living.
P.S.: If anyone wants a detailed look at this vanished way of life, I heartily recommend any of the pre-war editions of Emily Post's Etiquette. The book is essentially a handbook on how to live this way. [this post was last edited: 1/1/2013-19:58]
What's being depicted in The Women was a lifestyle that was fairly common for wealthy people at the time - a co-op apartment on Park Avenue in the city, and a place in Connecticut for weekends and summers.
Excellent train service in those days made it easy to live this way, and Connecticut real estate wasn't as stratospherically priced as it is now. Fairfield, CT, which is not affordable for most mere mortals today, was then a place where a lot of bankers, stockbrokers and wealthy theater people had second homes.
The whole lifestyle collapsed in the 1960s, when train service deteriorated drastically, and real estate got incredibly expensive. It did not help that the servants upon whom the wealthy depended to run such lavish establishments also became unaffordable, as well as extremely scarce - beginning after the war, most Americans wanted a "real" job, not one in domestic service. The wealthy still flocked to places like Fairfield, but many now had to choose between a city or country life. Today, only a very few people can afford this city/country way of living.
P.S.: If anyone wants a detailed look at this vanished way of life, I heartily recommend any of the pre-war editions of Emily Post's Etiquette. The book is essentially a handbook on how to live this way. [this post was last edited: 1/1/2013-19:58]
